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Adia Whitaker

Adia Tamar Whitaker, Artistic Director
of Ase Dance Theatre Collective, graduated from San Francisco State
University with a BA in Dance. Ms. Whitaker has performed Afro-Haitian
and contemporary dance in the U.S. and abroad for 13 years. Adia
completed the Professional Division U.S. Independent Studies Program at
The Ailey School (2001), was a Ford Foundation Special Initiative for
Africa Grant Recipient (2004), an Urban Bush Women Apprentice (2005) and
a Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (2006). She has
received grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council (2007), The Puffin
Foundation (2008), the Hip Hop Theater Festival (2008) and the Jerome
Foundation (2008). Recently, Ms. Whitaker became a Theater Bay Area CA$H
Grant (2009) and Zellerbach Family Fund Grant Recipient (2009). She is
currently a Counterpulse Performing Diaspora Artist-In-Residence in San
Francisco. Adia has traveled to Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, Ghana, West Africa
and Jamaica to study traditional African dance styles in cultural,
contemporary, and performance context. Her work has been presented by;
Harlem Stage (NYC 2010), Lincoln Center (NYC 2009 & 2010), Young
Audiences, (NYC 2010), La Pena Cultural Center (CA 2010), The World
Financial Center (NYC 2009), the Brooklyn Museum of Art (NYC 2008), City
Parks Foundation Summerstage, (NYC 2008), The Whitney (NYC 2007), ODC
(CA 2007), Youth Speaks and The Living Word Project (CA 2007), Hip Hop
Theater Festival, (NYC 2005-2007), The Kitchen (NYC 2004), The Caribbean
Cultural Center (NYC 2009), Yerba Buena Center for the Performing Arts
(NYC 2005), The Schomburg Center (NYC 2003-2009) and the International
Association of Blacks in Dance; Dance Conference at Symphony Space (NYC
2006).

Choreographic Fellow
| May 8 – 22, 2006

The Truth About Medusa

Whitaker focused on experimentation and
process work around neo-folklore in the African Diaspora, specifically,
the African origin and mythological attributes of Medusa.
During
the residency, Whitaker sought
to inform a collective consciousness and behavior towards understanding and healing among women of color
, to help
identify which musical and kinesthetic expressions in blues, punk rock, hip
hop, and traditional folkloric culture of the African Diaspora draw relative
parallels between the ways women of color give voice to their hidden legacies
and the ways they perpetuate destructive cycles of oppression, and to shape a
contemporary neo-folkloric perception of how the spirit of “Medusa” survives in
cultural context today.